Early Impressions

[Dimitris]

Thanks a lot!

The right-click menu functionality is already there, BTW. If the mouse cursor is giving you trouble, try selecting the unit and pressing the context-menu key (on most keyboards it is the key right next to the _right_ Windows key), this has the same effect as right-clicking on the unit.

[Emx77]

ORIGINAL: Primarchx

Everyone's got to start somewhere... [:D]

Yeah, right. I was thinking to start but 144 page manual and tutorial with cryptic messages doesn't sounds good to justify 80$ risk.

[JOhnnyr]

Can anyone give information on the tactical aspects? How detailed does the game get from a tactical perspective?

[thewood1]

At a minimum it seems at the same level as harpoon. But as I dig deeper it seems to have cleaned up some of the issues with Harpoon. I think tactically it is superior to Harpoon ANW. At least guns have arcs now.

And on top of that, the interface is a heck of a lot easier.

If you have played Harpoon, you should be able to jump into this without any tutorial. Mission building is where the tutorial comes in.

My favorite part is opening up a scenario in the editor and the going to God mode and watching both sides play it out.

[JOhnnyr]

ORIGINAL: thewood1

At a minimum it seems at the same level as harpoon. But as I dig deeper it seems to have cleaned up some of the issues with Harpoon. I think tactically it is superior to Harpoon ANW. At least guns have arcs now.

And on top of that, the interface is a heck of a lot easier.

If you have played Harpoon, you should be able to jump into this without any tutorial. Mission building is where the tutorial comes in.

My favorite part is opening up a scenario in the editor and the going to God mode and watching both sides play it out.

Unfortunately I haven't played Harpoon =(

The closest thing I have played would be Dangerous Waters, Fleet Command, and Arctic Circle.

I guess I'm wondering as to the level of simulation. I don't expect DW2 (obviously), but how detailed is it?

[thewood1]

Well I have only played fleet command and it is more on scale with this. Command is much more tactically realistic, as well as detailed. And those two things don't necessarily mean the same thing.

[mikmykWS]

Dangerous waters was a tactical simulation so the actual action of driving a unit was certainly more detailed (go to sonar station, see water fall display on sonar, turn wheel etc). Our scope is from that of a commander so you manage forces and many of the tactical functions will be handled by the AI although you can do things like plot courses, set speeds/depths and fire weapons. In terms of the over model though with the exception of maybe sonar we're much more detailed.

Mike

[JOhnnyr]

ORIGINAL: mikmyk

Dangerous waters was a tactical simulation so the actual action of driving a unit was certainly more detailed (go to sonar station, see water fall display on sonar, turn wheel etc). Our scope is from that of a commander so you manage forces and many of the tactical functions will be handled by the AI although you can do things like plot courses, set speeds/depths and fire weapons. In terms of the over model though with the exception of maybe sonar we're much more detailed.

Mike

Thanks for the reply Mike!

[Primarchx]

Post your questions and frustrations here or over at warfaresims. There's lots of experts out there to help.

ORIGINAL: Emir Agic

ORIGINAL: Primarchx

Everyone's got to start somewhere... [:D]

Yeah, right. I was thinking to start but 144 page manual and tutorial with cryptic messages doesn't sounds good to justify 80$ risk.

[MAurelius]

well I must say that these comments really seem to point out that unlike a lot of the latest game releases (not talking about matrix here) everything runs smoothly and exceeds what I was hoping for... and that was a lot....

will get the game first thing in the morning - can't wait - thanks for all the hard work!

[mkjhartmann]

Mike,

thanks for the heads up on the right click. I guess I am mousily challenged.

Great product. This will take years to digest.

Mike

[At Ease]

As someone who has actually sat at a radar console in the navy i can tell you this is about as close to realism your gonna get.Very close to how it feels without the ship pitching around!!lol

[TheWombat_matrixforum]

I've done a couple tutorials and this game definitely does a great job with the level of control. You get what seems to be a phenomenal sensor modeling system, and the ability to give high-level commands (missions) to subordinate units and actually have them do their job well. What I haven't figured out yet is how to combine selective manual control with that system--trying to give a sub a plotted course, for instance, while it was on a mission resulted in a sub that ignored my commands and just did what it was doing before I hit F3 etc. But I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. I played around with the check box for ignoring plotted courses while attacking, but that didn't help. In the end, I won anyhow, but what I was trying to do was, in the middle of the ASuW mission, have the sub steer a certain route that I figured would be better than its current one. It apparently had other ideas.

And I haven't figured out the rather opaque instructions in the manual on creating custom overlays; I'd love to see a real step by step walkthrough on that!

But, even though this game ain't cheap, so far it seems pretty much as advertised. I'm hoping the user base creates more "traditional" NATO/WP scenarios, too, in the near future. The included scenarios are very nifty looking, but there's a lot more historical and near-future stuff than "classic," say, GIUK gap stuff right now. That's a personal preference, though; I also look forward to trying out some of the really interesting ones using navies you don't usually work with.

[Starstruck]

Very nice. Easy install. Running well on an iMac using Windows 7 under Bootcamp. I did try to give it a whirl using Parallels - but it was very, very slow. My congratulations to the entire team!

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: TheWombat
It apparently had other ideas.

Haven't got the game yet, as I'm still playing Civil War II, but I remember from Harpoon days you could not give orders to subs that were under water. They needed to surface or have an ability to communicate with CiC. Could that be what happened here?

Jim

[TheWombat_matrixforum]

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

ORIGINAL: TheWombat
It apparently had other ideas.

Haven't got the game yet, as I'm still playing Civil War II, but I remember from Harpoon days you could not give orders to subs that were under water, they needed to surface or have an ability to communicate with CiC. Could that be what happened here?

Jim

Dunno; I do recall what you're talking about though. I don't think I saw anything like that in the manual, but it's entirely possible. Would explain things nicely, as the sub was pretty deep at the time.

[Tomcat84]

ORIGINAL: Emir Agic

Yeah, right. I was thinking to start but 144 page manual and tutorial with cryptic messages doesn't sounds good to justify 80$ risk.

If I may ask: what is your background as in:
- any real life military
- computer (war) gaming wise (flight sims, fleet command?)

What I'm saying is: you obviously have an interest in warfare related stuff or you probably wouldn't have been here in the first place I would think?

I too pity the fool who has zero knowledge of anything military and fires this up.

But just because you haven't played harpoon doesn't mean this is not doable.
I personally did play some harpoon but a long time ago and not very extensively cause certain limitations bothered me.
I do have a strong military history interest and played military related sins/games, mostly flight sims though.

Anyway: I played part of the first tutorial, but then skipped the rest and just started playing. Read some basic manual sections (a lot if it is about scenario building too) and had no issues getting around.

But 80$ is a lot if money so I understand your concern. I would keep looking at what others are writing, maybe some videos if they pop up and then make a smart decision. But I don't think you should write it off yet. Cause if you have an interest in serious military you are quite likely to enjoy this I thin

[Wiz33]

This is something I posted about the original Harpoon back in 1989 and it still applies here. Don't be afraid to start with some of the larger scenarios. Having more units to command does make it a bit harder to keep track of everything but the scenario also usually last longer so it gives you more room to make some mistakes which you can recover from. Unlike smaller scenario which may be easier to handle but the lost of 1 or 2 important units pretty much means game over. I know many people that was dis-courage by Dawn Patrol in the original Harpoon and almost gave up on the game as being too hard until they tried some of the larger scenarios.

[ETF]

ORIGINAL: thewood1

Well I have only played fleet command and it is more on scale with this. Command is much more tactically realistic, as well as detailed. And those two things don't necessarily mean the same thing.

Miss the 3d models though

[thewood1]

I almost always turned them off. They looked kind of ridiculous and added nothing to realism or tactics. I like 3D when is applied as needed, not as grog porn.